Conventionally, in many industries, weight reduction of structural bodies has been promoted. Particularly in the automotive industry, weight reduction of automotive bodies due to environmental issues has been promoted recently. In designing such an automotive body, an analysis using computer-aided engineering (hereinafter, referred to as “CAE analysis”) has been an indispensable technique.
The CAE analysis has been known as an analytical technique capable of improving rigidity of a structural body or achieving the weight reduction of an automotive body by using a technique such as mathematical optimizers, a plate thickness optimization method, a shape optimization method, or a topology optimization method (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2006-330917). As a shape optimization method from among the above-mentioned optimization techniques, an optimization method that equally changes a shape of a structural part by using a representative dimension of the structural part has been used generally.
The conventionally performed shape optimization method for a part of a structural body is a method of performing analysis by changing a shape of the entire part. Hence, it is impossible to obtain accurate results from this analysis. Therefore, the conventional shape optimization methods have been insufficient as optimization methods of a shape of a part. Furthermore, when a rigidity analysis is performed in controlling the shape of a part, a method of analyzing by determining load and constraint conditions suitable to the part alone has been conventionally general. Hence, load transfer or the like when that part is incorporated in a structural body such as an automotive body is not reproduced correctly. Therefore, the shape optimization methods of structural parts have been insufficient.
It could therefore be helpful to provide analyzing apparatus for a shape of a structural part, which uses a multivariate analysis and is able to accurately control the shape of a part of a structural body.